Quick hits

Thursday

Feb 17, 2011 at 12:01 AM

QUOTING 'EM: It's hard not to look at the low ethical standards demanded of Pennsylvania's lawmakers and not think about Simon Cameron's best-known quote. (Cameron was a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and Abraham Lincoln's first secretary of war whose public record was less than stellar.) Here's his insight: "An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." The more things change, the more they stay they same.

CLOSED MOUTH, CLOSED MIND: House Speaker John Boehner says it is not his duty or responsibility to tell people who question President Barack Obama's citizenship and religion that they are wrong. "The American people have the right to think what they want to think. I can't - it's not my job to tell them," he said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." From that, one can only assume that Boehner would not challenge someone who said the Holocaust never happened or that black chattel slavery in the United States was a benevolent institution. Of course, ignorance breeds bliss - and votes.

WAIT AND SEE: The state Senate has begun hearings on privatizing the commonwealth's liquor and wine sales. Although this has been proposed (and failed) before, it might just happen this time because the state is in desperate need of revenue. Selling its wine and spirits operation could get the state as much as $2 billion.

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